


Firstnight

by Paian



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alien Culture, Alien Planet, M/M, Season/Series 07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 06:44:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4128649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paian/pseuds/Paian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aliens invite them to do it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Firstnight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [discodiva76](https://archiveofourown.org/users/discodiva76/gifts).



"Jack."

An urgent note in Daniel's low voice pulled Jack out of a warm, peaceful, fire-mesmerized loll. He blinked around for Teal'c and found him at eleven o'clock, quietly watchful amid the low-key activities of the meet-and-greet.

Jack said, "What?"

Daniel was on his knees in the dirt to his right, left hand resting lightly on his upper arm. He was looking away from the bonfire towards the woods, where a clearing had been lit by a circle of lanterns on poles. Whatever they used for oil burned a bluish white, and gave the area an enchanted glow. "We need to go now. We need to thank them and go back to our tents and leave in the morning."

"What about the miracle beans that might cure cancer?"

Carter was back at the base running tests, but reported initial findings so promising that the three of them had stayed an extra two days for the trading festival that would start at daybreak. Twenty tribes had converged here and this was the get-acquainted party. It was the mellowest party Jack had ever been to, and he'd been on the edge of sleep for an hour.

"Someone else is going to have to come back for those."

Jack came completely awake. "Now that you've told me what my strategic assessment will be, how about you fill me in on the data I'll use to make that assessment?"

Daniel pushed at his glasses, grabbed both hinges to adjust them into the same exact position, then stilled his hands with a visible effort. Whatever it was, he didn't want to say.

"Daniel," Jack warned softly.

"In order to trade tomorrow," Daniel said, "two or three of us have to make love with each other in that clearing. Representatives from each tribe will be taking turns doing it. They'll spend the rest of the night watching each other. A bonding demonstration and exchange of trust."

Jack scanned the area. The festival ambience _had_ changed, some -- the lutist was still playing, but even _more_ softly, and the slow-dance marathon had finally ended. A lot of people had gone off to sleep in the sea of tents set up on this clear ground between forest and village. The ones left around the bonfire were standing in small clusters or drifting away to the grassy sward off in the trees. The ones already there were sitting down to form a circle inside the circle of lanterns. Two guys were shaking out a big groundcloth, two more taking up the other end of it to help spread it.

Daniel was explaining that the foundational kinship unit in this culture wasn't a genetically related group but a sexually committed group, and they'd just started sanctioning pair bonds in addition to the traditional threesomes, which was a fascinating social shift but obviously of limited help in their case given the other requirements, and he'd love to study this more but they weren't supposed to watch if they weren't taking a turn, so they needed to get gone by the time the last people moved from the bonfire to the clearing. "There's your data. Make your assessment and let's go. I'll convey our regrets very politely. They won't be pissed, nobody will try to stop us going back through the gate when it's light, and we'll be just as welcome in the future."

"Even if Hammond can find the right people to send," Jack said, as slowly as the people were moving, "they won't be in time for this part of it. They get a shot at it tomorrow night?"

"No," Daniel said. "We'll miss out for this cycle. This event takes place only when the moons are aligned in that shape" -- he gestured towards where the big orangey moon and the smaller greyish ones formed a kind of lopsided triangle over the village -- "and that happens once in about sixteen of our months."

Teal'c had risen and was coming around the fire to them, matching the leisurely pace of the people walking towards the woods but moving with clear intent.

"So sixteen months with no cancer-curing beans," Jack said.

"We don't know that they'll actually cure any Terran diseases."

"Carter was pretty excited."

"Yes."

"Fraiser was pretty excited."

"Yes."

Teal'c sat down at Jack's ten and expressed concern about what he believed to be happening here, which was similar to a firstnight celebration he'd witnessed on one of Apophis's subject worlds. Jack said that Daniel had already made the analysis. Daniel said that all he'd done was ask the headman what was going on.

"And they couldn't have told us about this part sooner?" Jack said. It was taboo to dial the gate at night; some shaman back in the mists of time must have gotten sick of the noise at all hours and declared a moratorium. A few hours ago, they could have done something about this, or at least dumped it off on Hammond.

"He didn't know we didn't know. It'd be like offering somebody a contract and finding out that in their culture a person's signature is considered private." Daniel had eased down on his heels when Teal'c arrived, and now he shifted over onto his butt and set a foot on the ground, rested an arm on that knee. "They traditionally partner in threes. Our teamy vibe must have parsed to them as a marriage bond."

"Yeah. Got it." Jack took a breath. "So? T?"

Daniel whipped him a hard _you're not actually considering this_ look and delivered his patented elongated "Jack," but Jack kept his focus on Teal'c.

Teal'c's impassive mask had not-happy-about-this eyeholes. "I would not be comfortable engaging in sexual activity with either you or Daniel Jackson," he said quietly. "Among Jaffa, such activity is reserved for one's youth and abandoned upon maturity." He frowned a little more deeply, and then said, "For benefits such as these medicines may bring, however, I am capable of mastering my discomfort. The act itself is not unpleasant to me."

Daniel said, "Mastering wouldn't be enough."

Jack had to stare at Teal'c for an extra couple of seconds to make sure he wasn't deadpanning irony. "Nope, no mastering," he said, and made himself turn back to Daniel, a shivering silvery vibration in every muscle. "You and me then?"

"It can't just be sex," Daniel said, with more emphasis. The bonfire reflected off his glasses, but Jack could see his eyes from the side, and their expression didn't match the rest of his face either. "I wasn't using 'make love' as a euphemism. It has to be lovemaking. The emotional nakedness is key to the ritual. They do this every summer. They'll know faking when they see it."

Teal'c somehow also raised a brow as he frowned this time. "I was led to believe that three representatives of each tribe were required for this ritual."

"They've recently decided to recognize pair bonds," Daniel said. "Sorry, that's part of what I was telling Jack before you came over."

Teal'c cast Daniel such a reserved and yet penetrating look that Jack felt a crazy surge of jealousy, half expecting to hear a declaration of love, since the love thing was the remaining issue. But when Teal'c spoke, he seemed to be addressing both of them. "Then there is less impediment than I thought. Should it simplify your decision, know that such revelations as your participation would imply will come as no surprise to me. If that knowledge frees you, I shall remove myself to my own tent. I believe you know that you are assured of my silence."

There was a long pause. It took a minute for Jack to translate Teal'c's words into _I'm cool, you're good, I'll get lost, lips are sealed,_ another minute to cope with the ramifications: what it meant that Teal'c knew about him, and that there was something to know about Daniel. Jack had never let himself go there, dismissed any inklings that there was a there. But.

But.

With no one tending it, the bonfire was dying down. He stared at it in a kind of paralysis. After a few seconds he became aware that Daniel was staring at it exactly the same way. Teal'c had gathered himself to go off to bed, but he paused now, considering them.

_Don't,_ Jack thought, but he was absolutely helpless to head it off.

"Don't," Daniel said. "It's OK, Teal'c. He can't, but I might as well, now." His head turned to the side, towards Jack, but it was tilted down, and after a second he looked back at the fire. "I hoped, and wished, that I was wrong," he said. "I didn't think I could be wrong about something like this, but it makes things so much more complicated for you." He swallowed, but there was no change in his expression, which had gone from paralyzed to tightly controlled. "At any rate, I meet all the requirements for this ritual where you're concerned, Jack. Emotion, orientation, all of it. These are gentle, friendly, open people and doing it in front of them wouldn't bother me. If you felt the same way, and if we were sure we could finesse the report to protect you from suspicion when follow-up teams find out the nature of these festival nights, I'd ... embrace the opportunity. Apparently Teal'c thinks you feel the same way. I ... don't know if I believe that, but I know you're not free to say it if you do, and I don't think you should admit it if you can. Repressing it all again when we get back would be very difficult for me. It's going to be a pain in the ass as it is. I wouldn't wish that on you."

Jack wanted to say, _Now, **that's** a declaration of love_ , but nobody would get the reference, and it was only the voice of his stunned mind, flailing.

Jack wanted to turn to Teal'c and say, _And it goes without saying that if I penalize him for spilling his guts, I'll answer to you._ But it went without saying. It was why Teal'c was still sitting here.

Jack wanted to speak up as honestly as Daniel had, but there was a padlock on that part of his brain and it wasn't magically unlocking because Daniel had spoken of the unspeakable.

He got to his feet. Teal'c got to his feet. Daniel sat and stared at the dying fire. Teal'c gave Jack a long, assessing look, then clasped his hands behind his back, inclined his head, and moved off in the direction of their tents. Jack looked down at Daniel. Daniel glanced after Teal'c, then lowered his head, took a breath, and looked up at Jack.

His expression was mild and challenging, fond and cold, polite and dangerous. It said, _So. Your best shot. I'm waiting._

Jack reached a hand out and down to him, palm up, fingers spread.

Daniel's head cocked. His eyebrows folded together. His eyes narrowed, then blinked into bewildered hurt, as if he thought that Jack was trying to prank him.

"Opportunity," Jack said. "Let's take it."

Daniel looked at Jack's hand as if weighing options, then reached across himself and closed his right hand around it. When he'd spun his feet under him and come up, no drag on Jack's arm at all, they were left in a handshake. A step in, a pivot, an arm around the back would transform it into a couples' hold. Jack shifted his weight for that step, and Daniel belayed him with a hard grip and a cautionary twist of the chin that said, _OK. But that's not enough._

"It's mutual," Jack said. Every syllable was an effort. "No repressing when we get back. We find a way. Yes?"

Daniel seemed taken off-guard. Not what he'd expected Jack to say, apparently. He opened his mouth, moved his lower jaw back and forth a couple of times, then sighed from back in his throat. He eyes went soft and pained; he looked broken-hearted. By some tragic future he was seeing in his head? Jack discharged, the team beheaded, the SGC demoralized?

Daniel's arm was firm. In a dance he'd be holding Jack still with that arm, not letting him advance, not letting him retreat. Jack relaxed his arm and bent his elbow and stepped in, right into Daniel's space, Daniel's face. "You listen to me, Daniel." His voice was low, hoarse, chesty. All his breath, all his strength, channeled into this. "They cannot stop us. We matter too much. We have friends who are more powerful than they are. We have saved the world. We have _come back from the dead_. Our military is one group in one country on one planet. We are _so much bigger than that_."

"It's who you are," Daniel whispered.

"Then there is _one last thing_ that you don't know about me, Daniel, because who I am isn't one of them. It's half of _us_."

For a long moment Daniel was so impenetrably unresponsive that Jack felt as if some alien whammy had frozen them both in place. Then Daniel smiled, a small smile, the way you smile through tears -- and shook his head, and laughed. A full, out-loud laugh, exasperation and delight and disbelief. He grabbed a handful of Jack's shirt at the shoulder and gave him the shake you give someone who's scared the crap out of you. "God _damn_ it, Jack."

Jack brought his free arm up too, and slid his hand around the back of Daniel's neck, and stroked soft hair and warm skin with his thumb. He was laughing too, quietly, an exhausted, beseeching kind of laugh as he said, "Please don't make me talk any more right now."

"You're good," Daniel said. He stepped in closer. "No more talking." He let go of Jack's hand to take hold of his chin, and touch his lips softly to Jack's, and kiss. "Only showing," he said, and licked his own lips, and kissed again, a sweet, astonishing press of moist warmth. "In the tent, if you want," he said, and kissed again, pressing in more, tilting his head, taking his time. "Or in the clearing. Either way." He drew back and stroked his thumb over Jack's cheek and looked him in the eyes. "You lead, I'll follow."

Jack put both arms around him and took his mouth, kissed it open, found his tongue. He pushed in slow and deep, his best technique, his A-game kiss, and pushed his hips forward to meet Daniel's when Daniel moaned and pushed all up against him. They kissed until they were thrusting, both hard, and there was a high likelihood of them leaving it by the bonfire. They gasped out of it at the same time, and Jack took a step back, bringing Daniel's hand with him, and turned for the clearing.

After all this, they were _so_ getting those beans.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^


End file.
